


Same As It Ever Was

by Magnetism_bind



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drinking, Friendship, Growing Up Together, High School Reunion, Jealousy, Nostalgia, Reminiscing, Rivalry, teenagers being teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-06-28 14:28:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19814203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magnetism_bind/pseuds/Magnetism_bind
Summary: Jack attends his high school reunion with the vague hope that he might see his old crush there. Instead he runs into his crush's ex-girlfriend.High school was not the best time of their lives.





	Same As It Ever Was

**Author's Note:**

> Written for BS Rarepair week 2019

The dj is playing “Once in a Lifetime.” The theme of the gym-turned-dance -floor is blue and crimson for no discernible reason. The punch is a revolting cherry flavor, but the bar is open. It’s simultaneously everything Jack Rackham feared for his tenth high school reunion, and nothing that he had hoped.

There is after all only one person he’s hoping to see here tonight, even though he knows the chances are slim indeed.

As he looks around the room he catches sight of a familiar blonde head.

Well, naturally. She would be here after all. Is she hoping for the same thing he is? With them both hoping in vain? Same as it ever was.

Jack straightens his tie and saunters over to the bar.

“Ms Guthrie,” he slides onto the stool next to her, ‘Or should I say Mrs Rogers?”

“Divorced.” Eleanor flips him off without looking up from her drink.

“Wrong finger.” Jack nods to the bartender and fails to catch his attention. “Charming as ever.”

Eleanor takes a sip and says nothing.

“So…sorry to hear that about the divorce.”

“No, you’re not.” Eleanor looks up at him then, direct as ever too.

“No.” Jack says after a moment. By all accounts her husband was an absolute bastard. He’s not sorry to hear she got out of that.

Eleanor holds his gaze unflinching. “Good. Neither am I.” She downs the last of her drink and gestures to the bartender who pays attention immediately. Jack makes a similar gesture now that the man is looking their way. He hadn’t planned on speaking on with Eleanor tonight, but if he does, he will need alcohol.

Eleanor gives him an incredulous look as he gets his drink. “We don’t have to drink together, we’re not friends.”

“We most certainly are not.” Jack snorts. If he had to categorize their relationship from school it would undeniably fall into the rivals box. Rivals for school prizes, rivals for most popular student, rivals for the attention of Charles Vane…

“I suppose what I’m really curious about why you’re here.”

Eleanor shrugs. “It’s supposed to be a milestone, isn’t it.”

“Mmm.”

She takes a sip of her vodka tonic and looks at him. “You want to know if I’m hoping to see Charles.”

“Well.”

“I could ask the same thing of you.”

“You could,” Jack says. “But I happen to be here with my girlfriend.”

“What a coincidence.” Eleanor smiles sweetly at him, ‘“So am I.”

Jack almost gives her a dirty look, but he’s not fifteen anymore, so he refrains. Instead he’s reminded of how she had smiled at him like that when she had snaked the school field for extra soccer practice instead of band which was it was scheduled for. But a principal’s daughter always got away with shit like that.

“Really.” He says. “How did that happen?”

She shrugs again. “When I figured out women were a lot better than men in general, and far better to sleep with. What about you?” She gives him a pointed look.

“I don’t believe in labels.” Jack says primly.

“How quaint.” She sneers. “I bet it says “it’s complicated in as your facebook relationship.”

“Darling, nobody’s on facebook anymore.” Jack scans the room again. “What about you? Pan?”

“Bi.” Eleanor leans back. “I like it better.”

Jack just nods. There’s still no sign of Charles. He looks back to see Eleanor studying him.

“What’d you do after school anyway?”

‘Is the the esteemed Ms Guthrie actually asking a personal question? My, the times _have_ changed.”

“Oh shut it.” Eleanor rolls her eyes. “I’m just too lazy to shift seats and bored enough to make conversation until Max gets back.”

“Max?”

“Max can be a girls’ name.”

Jack shrugs. “You talk a lot about a woman who seems to be invisible.”

“Who’s invisible?”

Right on cue, an attractive woman with brunette curls spilling over her shoulders comes up to them. She’s wearing a halter top that accentuates her breasts and a sleek black skirt.

“Jack thinks you’re not real because I used to fuck boys in school.” Eleanor says. “Well, not in school. Well, mostly.”

“You must be Jack.” Max holds out her hand. “Max.”

“Pleasure” They shake hands.

“The one who…”

Eleanor makes a zipping gesture across her lips and Jack’s interest is piqued.

“The one who…”

Max gives Eleanor a quick look. "The one…in band.”

“Please say that’s not the only thing she told you.” Jack looks pained. 

“What did you want me to say?” Eleanor says. “The one that I found sucking my boyfriend’s cock in the music room after class?”

“Well, to be honest, I did think you would lead with that.” Jack shrugs.

Eleanor makes a face. “Yeah, he’s the one.”

“Uh,” Max says. ‘How’s it going?”

“Fantastic.” Jack deadpans as a lanky redhead in jeans and tight leather vest comes up to him, finally.

She slings a slim arm around him, “You said there’d be dancing.”

“There will be.” Jack says soothingly.

Eleanor is giving him a look. So Jack sighs and gestures to them. “Ann, this is Eleanor, and Max.”

“Right.” Anne looks at them with an appraising eye. “You’re the rich bitch with the cocky sporty boyfriend who got off with Jack behind your back, yah?”

Eleanor splutters into her drink. Taking a cocktail napkin she wipes at her chin. “Yeah, actually. That about sums it up.” She gives Anne a look, like she doesn’t quite know what to make of her.

Jack could tell her to get used to that, but he’s not into being nice to Eleanor Guthrie even after school is long over.

“Right,” Anne looks at Max with a friendlier expression. “Hiya.”

Max smiles. “How would you like to go talk to the dj? I bet we can get him to play something that’s actually danceable.”

“Yeah, alright.”

Max squeezes Eleanor’s hand and starts off.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Anne squeezes Jacks’s crotch and follows her.

“Unfortunately that still leaves a wealth of options.” Jack takes a long sip of his whiskey sour. When he looks back, Eleanor has her chin in her palm, just looking at him.

“What?”

“Nothing. Just.” She shrugs expansively. “It all seems so pointless, now, doesn’t it?” She leans over the bar, assessing the lay of the land. The bartender is at the other end, attention occupied.

Eleanor hefts herself up, in her sleeveless black pantsuit, it’s easy, and slides over the bar. Jack watches open mouthed as she grabs a bottle of whiskey and vaults back over the bar. She always was good at sport, Jack thinks bitterly.

Eleanor takes the bottle and starts heading for the corridor, and then pauses. Spinning around she looks at him. “You coming or what?”

Jack stares at her so long she shrugs and starts off again. She’s nearly out the door before he catches up.

* * *

They go down the hall and up to the second level, sneaking through the main hallway through the maintenance stairway to the rooftop like it’s still high school and they’re still stuck wanting to get out of here, and be free to live their lives.

Jack sits on the rooftop and looks up at the murky blue sky. What was it all for anyway? All those nauseating emotions, and desires and hopes – do they still matter?

Eleanor sinks down beside him. “You haven’t heard from him either.”

It’s not a question.

“No..” Jack murmurs. “Just a postcard once or twice.”

Eleanor sighs faintly. “That’s more than I ever got.” She offers the bottle to Jack, and perplexed and even a little dumbfounded at this turn of events, he takes it. Such an admission from the golden girl herself. He takes a sip. He’s not sure there’s something to say in circumstances such as this, so instead they sit in silence, sharing the bottle.

“Do you think,” Eleanor begins, “He actually really…ever…cared about.”

“Oh no, no.” Jack takes the bottle from her quickly. “We’re not going down that road.”

“Why not?”

“Because, I’ve been down there too many time to count.” He takes a swig, lets the whiskey burn his throat. “And there’s nothing to be found, no resolution to be gained, no closure to be had. Just an understanding, I suppose.”

“An understanding of what?’”

“That the past is past. At least it happened.”

“At least it happened.” Eleanor repeats. “Does that mean you don’t regret it?”

“Every man, every person,” Jack amends, “has regrets. The truth is, whether you can make peace with it…whether those regrets go hand in hand with your fondest memories.”

“Fondest.” Eleanor raises an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Not all of the past was bad.” Jack murmurs. “The point is, we survived it.”

“You’re right.” Eleanor says after a moment. “On that at least.”

She takes another lengthy sip. “He did have a really good dick.”

Jack’s hoot of laugh carries out over the school roof into the dark and the stars laugh along overhead. They sit a while longer before making their way, a trifle unsteadily, back downstairs to the dance floor.

When they reach it, they find Max and Anne dancing, as they expected, and also, not quite.

Jack and Eleanor both pause at the sight of their respective girlfriends slow dancing, hands entwined around each other’s necks, swaying slowly to the music. There is no visible distance between their bodies.

Jack clears his throat.

“Ah.” Eleanor says. “Well. Um.”

“It’s fine.” Jack says. “I’m sure it’s all fine.”

Definitely not anything to worry about, definitely won’t led to more complications in the future. 

I mean, he thinks, as he and Eleanor go forward to meet them, why would it?


End file.
